Dr Richard Piper is Chief Executive of the new charity formed by the merger of Alcohol Concern and Alcohol Research UK. He joined in September 2017 having previously worked for Mencap, NCVO and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity and provided consultancy to many of the UK’s biggest and smallest charities. He is a trustee of the Royal Colleges of Nursing Foundation and the Children’s Chronic Arthritis Association and is an active volunteer for St Albans Woodcraft Folk.

Rory is a performance coach and fitness expert who has run over 900 marathons and set 8 world records.

But Rory hasn’t always been so fit and healthy. In his own words:

“I was an overweight, 40/day cigarette smoking alcoholic. On 5 January 1994, I realised that I had to change the way I approached life and decided that it was time to stop looking for happiness in drink and cigarettes.

For the next three months I was motivated by my dream. I stuck to my goals, stopped smoking, gradually increased my exercise regime and controlled my diet. In just three months I was able to run a Half-Marathon in under 2 hours.

Fitness has brought me great happiness and is a fundamental part of my daily life… I’ve completed over 975 Marathons and will complete my dream of 1000 Marathons on 25th September, 2016.”

Having worked for an MP in Westminster, Laura joined the team in August 2015 and undertakes campaigning and policy activities in order to identify opportunities to influence policy development and legislation and ensure that alcohol harm reduction remains at the centre of the public health agenda. Laura also provides the Secretariat to the APPG on Alcohol Harm which is delivered by Alcohol Concern.

Lee is a comedian, writer actor and familiar face from the world of British comedy. He decided to get involved with our work as a way to try and curb the rise of alcohol sponsorship, particularly in comedy.

“As an ambassador for Alcohol Concern I’m keen to be part of changing the conversations we are having about alcohol.

“My personal motivation comes from a concern about the growth of alcohol marketing, in particular alcohol sponsorship. I’m a drinker myself and not remotely ‘anti-alcohol’, but today alcohol sponsorship is everywhere.

“Sponsorship makes subtle associations between drinking and simple life pleasures such as watching football, going to a gig or enjoying comedy. In fact seven out of ten people associate a particular beer brand with comedy. When children or young people grow up thinking humour or music or sport are directly linked to alcohol, then I think we have a major problem. When it comes to sponsorship of cultural or sporting events I think it’s maybe time we viewed alcohol the way we view cigarettes. “UEFA Champions League brought to you by Benson and Hedges” doesn’t have the same ring does it?

“I’ve tried, where possible, to protect my work from being used to sell booze but it is incredibly difficult – almost impossible. I’m looking forward to working with Alcohol Concern, to raise awareness about some of these issues.”

Andrew Misell is Alcohol Concern’s Director for Wales, and has led the development of the charity’s work in Wales since 2009. He previously worked for Diabetes UK, leading their policy and public affairs work in Wales, and has also been a Senior Researcher with the Liberal Democrat group in the National Assembly for Wales.

Mark has been with us for seven years now and he acts as spokesman for Alcohol Concern. He also manages the Wales office when the Director is unavailable. On a day to day basis, Mark liaises with key partners and identifies project funding opportunities, as well as doing press and public speaking for the charity.

Alastair Campbell is a writer, communicator and strategist best known for his role as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy.

His third novel, published in September 2013, was called My Name Is, and tells the story of a young girl’s descent into alcoholism. This is what led him to get involved with our work at Alcohol Concern.

Lauren is a Health Sciences graduate with over 15 years' experience in the field of substance misuse. An Alcohol Concern consultant and trainer for nearly 10 years, she is also a qualified counsellor, training assessor and verifier. Lauren has a wealth of experience in development, delivery and evaluation of a range of alcohol training courses and has a particular background in delivering workplace alcohol harm reduction programmes with clients such as British Telecom, the Royal Navy and Oracle.

Lauren has recently contributed to the development of the Blue Light initiative and helped to integrate the Blue Light techniques and approaches in different settings, as well as researching and drafting a manual and training for carers of drinkers who have developed Alcohol Related Brain Damage (ARBD).

Mark Holmes BSc, RMN, SPMH has worked within the alcohol misuse field for nearly two decades developing services in community treatment, hospital alcohol liaison, IBA, alcohol related long term conditions and end of life care. Mark was awarded the Nursing Times Mental Health Nurse of the Year in 2012 for his work on preventing alcohol related hospital admissions by increasing levels of care.

Publications include the Blue Light Project and over 20 further others highlighting the need for greater professional and public awareness of the impact of alcohol on the public health. He is currently employed by HAGA, the action on alcohol charity, as their Digital Health coordinator and is a team leader in the NHS for Alcohol Related Long Term Conditions nurses.

A former Metropolitan Police Officer, Mike retrained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Addictions Counselling. He has worked as an addictions therapist and addictions services manager, contributing to the National Treatment Agency’s Integrated Care Pathways/Models of Care. Mike also has experience with commissioning and specification for substance misuse treatment systems.

Mike Ward is Senior Consultant at Alcohol Concern. He has worked in the substance misuse/mental health field for over thirty years. He founded and led Surrey Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service and has worked for Cranstoun and Kent Council on Addiction. He was formerly Commissioning Manager (Mental Health & Substance Misuse) for Surrey Social Services, where he also acted as DAAT Coordinator and community safety lead. He is now a full-time consultant and trainer. He wrote the Department of Health/NTA guidelines on running drug death review systems and has recently written guidance on minimum standards for alcohol Intervention and Brief Advice (IBA).

Together with Mark Holmes, Mike developed the Blue Light Project, Alcohol Concern’s ground breaking initiative to develop alternative approaches and care pathways for treatment resistant drinkers who place a burden on public services. The project shows that there are positive strategies that can be used with this client group.

Alan Maryon-Davis is honorary professor of public health at Kings College London and was formerly Vice-Chair of the UK Health Forum, Chair of the Royal Society for Public Health and President of the Faculty of Public Health of the UK Royal Colleges of Physicians.

His interests include the impacts of health policy, environments and lifestyle on health behaviours and he has been a member of a number of national advisory committees, including public health research. Alan is also a prolific writer and broadcaster on health matters.

John Underwood is the Director of the Centre for Health Communication Research at Bucks New University and a director of Freshwater UK, a communications consultancy and media group.

John works with many NHS organisations – especially NHS mental health trusts – on communication and engagement issues. Much of his work involves dealing with the impact of alcohol abuse both on the healthcare system and in the wider social economy. John is a former chair of the Management Board of Catalyst, a public policy think tank associated with Lord Hattersley and was a TV news reporter and presenter with ITV, ITN and the BBC. In addition to his work at Bucks New University John holds an honorary chair at the University of Glasgow.

Dr Emily Finch is the clinical director for the Addictions Clinical Academic Group, and from 2004 to 2007, she was the Clinical Team Leader at the National Treatment Agency (NTA). Emily is also a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Addictions Executive.

In 2012 Dr Finch chaired a joint RCGP RCPsych working group to develop a document defining competencies for doctors working in addictions.

Valerie spent ten years in corporate finance in the City, with Schroders, Cazenove and Flemings, before moving into venture capital, investing mainly in early stage, high growth businesses. She currently manages a university seedcorn fund and a number of EIS funds.

Valerie has a first class degree in engineering from Cambridge University, a diploma in Management Studies, a diploma in Charity Accounting and is a Chartered Secretary. She is also a trustee of the Imperial College Healthcare Charity and Beat (The Eating Disorders Association).

Peter is the Chief Executive of the OPM Group. Before this he held the position of Head of Strategy and Performance at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and also worked as Director of Customer and Strategy for Personal Tax at HMRC.

He has held a number of different roles at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which ranged from working on counter-narcotics policy in Afghanistan to international intellectual property policy.

She also oversees the three BBC orchestras in England, the BBC Singers, and the BBC Proms; classical music & performance television, factual radio and radio drama production are all within her remit, under the Radio production department.

She is a member of the BBC’s Executive Board and is a Director of RAJAR, Digital Radio UK, UK Radioplayer.

Derek Heim is a Professor of Psychology at Edge Hill University. As a social psychologist with an interest in health behaviours, his primary research areas concern (i) addiction and substance use and (ii) health and well-being. In these contexts, his work focuses on social, cultural and contextual influences which he investigates utilising both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Derek is also Editor-in-Chief of Addiction Research and Theory the leading outlet for research and theoretical contributions that view addictive behaviour as arising from psychological processes within the individual and the social context in which the behaviour takes place as much as from the biological effects of the psychoactive substance or activity involved.

Sarah is Professor of Adult Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University, England. Her research and teaching focuses on alcohol and other drug use in association with a range of social and health care issues, e.g. domestic violence, older people, sight loss and end of life care. In addition to her academic role, Sarah is a registered social worker with a practice background in adult services, particularly working with people experiencing mental distress, homeless people, and people with alcohol and other drug problems. She has led research and policy work in the UK on substance use in social work education and practice and is widely published including practice guidance, online learning, peer reviewed journals, professional magazines and books.

Chief Executive Officer of Aquarius, a charity providing alcohol, drug and gambling services. With a professional background in social work, Annette has worked in both the statutory and voluntary sectors and developed expertise in child protection, mental health, learning disabilities and community development.

Her interest in developing social work practice lead to her teaching at Birmingham University, Social Work Department with a focus on social work and poverty, social work practice, theory and methods. Whilst at Aquarius Annette has maintained her commitment to improving practice by supporting and encouraging research and evaluation across the organisation on topics such as alcohol and families, kinship carers, older people and alcohol, BME communities and alcohol and ensuring the use of evidence based practice.

Sally Dibb is Professor of Marketing and Society in the Centre for Business in Society at Coventry University. She is also Visiting Professor at the Open University, where previously she was Director of the Institute for Social Marketing (ISM-Open). Her research includes behaviour change projects in health, sustainability and wellbeing. She has published 11 books and over 90 journal articles.

Previously Sally was an Associate Dean at Warwick Business School. She was also a member of the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) Research Evaluation Framework (REF 2014) panel for Business and Management. Sally is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is on the Advisory Board at Oxford Brookes Business School and at the iMARKE research group, University of Minho, Portugal.

Gareth Harkin leads the Client Services Team at Chelsea Football Club. Responsible for the account management and retention of all hospitality accounts, his background in sport also extends to rugby, where he spent six years as Sales & Debenture Manager at Harlequins FC. Here, Gareth developed sales strategies, compèred hospitality lounges and was integral in establishing the ‘Big Game’ at Twickenham as an iconic event in the sporting calendar. During his career in sport, Gareth has established an influential network of both sportspeople and sports fans – and is currently on the board of Chris Robshaw’s Testimonial Year.

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Please note that this is not a medical detox programme and should not be attempted by people with an alcohol dependency problem. Please contact Alcohol Concern for more details. Registered Charity Number 1140287.

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